"Blessed be the inventor of photography! I set him above even the inventor of chloroform! It has given more positive pleasure to poor suffering humanity than anything else that has cast up in my time or is like to -- this art by which even the poor can possess themselves of tolerable likenesses of their absent dear ones."

The trend for mourning photography began to fall out of fashion in the early stages of the 20th century as snapshots became more affordable and commonplace.